Ertugrul Ozkok: Is the reason the U.S. pressure?

When we list what happened and what was told in Ankara in the last 48 hours, we see a similar situation to “Johnson’s letter”.

First the U.S. Defense Secretary reacted. He said “The operation should not last for months but for weeks.” After this Bush made similar comments. But the Prime Minister’s adviser challenged those views in his comments to BBC. “We will decide when we would leave” he says.

Moreover the Chief of General Staff spoke. “Short term is a relative concept. This could be either one week or one year”. The prime minister also echoed those views. And in the night of this stormy day Turkish troops withdraw from Northern Iraq.

If you draw such a picture to the public, in their view this “withdrawal” turns into a “diplomatic pull-back”. So yesterday when we were preparing today’s edition of Hurriyet, I called several sources in Ankara to learn what really happened.

The answer of the question was something we all wanted to know. “Did the Turkish army return because of the U.S. pressure?” or “Did they completed their mission and the withdrawal call came after that?”

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The answer I got was this: “This withdrawal definitely was planned and scheduled.”

According to the information I got, this decision was made on Wednesday night. The Turkish army achieved the planned objectives and did what it has to do. One of the most important objectives of the operation was to give that message to the PKK’s leadership in the mountains: “You are not safe even in winter time”. That message was given successfully.

Also PKK’s supplements for potential attacks in spring and hide-outs were destroyed. In fact the operation was planned for such a duration.

Moreover such a big operation cannot be completed with a decision made overnight.

So why we see this reaction from Turkish people since last morning? The answer is clear. Because the diplomatic operation which was held successfully until the beginning of the last week, was almost turned upside down in the last 72 hours.

It was very unnecessary to make such comments on BBC to increase public support at a time when the army was comfortably doing its job in Iraq. Such an angry rhetoric could work in internal politics but not in diplomacy. At the end this made question marks in the public about a perfect operation which was held under heavy winter weather conditions.

But there are some other wrongdoings. For example the Americans. Was it so necessary for the U.S. Defense Minister to make such comments when he was in India? Was it necessary for Bush step in?

If we go back to our own mistakes. Should the Turkish people learn the withdrawal from an Iraqi minister? Could someone prevent the Forest Minister to make such angry comments? At the end the situation is very convenient for conspiracy theories. As I said a very successful military operation turn into a diplomatic pull back.

It will not be so easy to erase this suspicion from public’s mind. Turkish-American relations, which tend to be improving recently, will be hurt once again in the public’s view. However the civilian-military cooperation was extraordinary. I think a very successful cross-border operation was held.

I cuddle all those hero kids, who return their bases yesterday. I congratulate our hero commanders. They succeeded a very very big thing.

This country is grateful to them.